American Society of Anesthesiologists class and Charlson's comorbidity index as predictors of postoperative colorectal anastomotic leak: a single-institution experience.

Background: The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) was adopted to assess patients' physical condition before surgery. Studies suggest that ASA score and CCI might be a prognostic criterion (indicator) for patient outcome. The aim of this study is to determine if ASA classification and CCI can determine the risk of anastomotic leaks (AL) in patients who underwent colorectal surgery.

Mitoxantrone targets human ubiquitin-specific peptidase 11 (USP11) and is a potent inhibitor of pancreatic cancer cell survival.

Unlabelled: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, with a 95% five-year mortality rate. For over a decade, gemcitabine (GEM) has been the established first-line treatment for this disease despite suboptimal response rates. The development of PARP inhibitors that target the DNA damage repair (DDR) system in PDA cells has generated encouraging results.

Technical skills acquisition in surgery-bound senior medical students: an evaluation of student assertiveness.

Objective: To prepare students pursuing surgical careers, we devised a senior subinternship curriculum supplement that focused on the acquisition of technical skills required of surgical residents. We hypothesized that more assertive students, those that accomplished more of the curriculum, would perform better on a technical skills Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).

Design: Senior medical students rotating on their first general surgery subinternship were administered a 6-station OSCE on the first day of their subinternship and again during the final week of the month-long rotation.

Molecular profiling of synchronous and metachronous cancers of the pancreas reveal molecular mimicry between samples from the same patient.

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is rarely a survivable disease. In rare cases, separate synchronous tumors are discovered at the time of resection, while in others, patients present with a metachronous cancer after prior surgical resection. Studying molecular markers of synchronous and metachronous lesions may aid to clarify the biology of this often deadly disease.

Subject review: pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in the setting of mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene: case report and review of the literature.

Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most commonly inherited lethal autosomal recessive genetic disease amongst Caucasians. CF results from mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. Patients with homozygous or compound heterozygous CFTR mutations have a risk of pancreatitis, but typically do not live long enough to develop pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA), a disease that has an average age at diagnosis of 65 years.